Artyom's Litvyak: Metro 2033
by KrazyKaiser
Summary: The 501st Strike Witches had protected Britannia and was already preparing to pursue the Neroui deeper into Europe and the Mediterranean. Yet the rest of the Strike Witches are to meet their greatest test in the survival of the fittest in the horrors of the Russian Metro. Scattered in separate locations, one of the 501st Witches will meet the future savior of the Metro, Artyom.


**Disclaimer: I do not own Metro 2033 or Strike Witches**

**Artyom's Litvyak**

_**Chapter 1: Children**_

-0-

**Artyom's notes…**

_I worried about my home, Exhibition, would share the fate of Hole Station. But within that nightmare, I met a pair of young survivors, with one being very brave and very talkative, and the other being unusual._

-0-

Inside one of those many dim metro rooms, there were a lot of dead nosalises in big pool of blood along with their corpses sprawled out all over the place in a recumbent manner. There were also the gruesome dead bodies of several people who were attempting to defend themselves from the nosalis that were lying in their own pools of blood away from the nosalises. But there were two young comrades that overviewed the miniature carnage within the room. One was a short 6-year old boy, and the other one was a 14 year-old girl that was presumable short as the boy.

The boy was dressed in what you would typically find of the pre-war Russian winter fashion. The boy was in a dark-colored thick jacket with a similar dark-shaded rough scarf wrapped like a double chest belt along with brown jeans and small winter boots that were tight around his ankles, and he lastly wore a simple brown beanie cap on his head to keep his head warm from the conditions in the Metro.

The girl was sort of wearing the complete opposite of what the boy had. The girl was wearing black tights with brown ankle-high boots and along with a lower black and upper white colored jacket with a black tie on it that had a red star on it. Unlike the boy who had a beanie cap over his head, the girl had sort of a pale bowl-haircut along with snow white skin.

There was also a second a difference of what the boy and the girl were doing. The girl was in a sideways lying position with her right leg cross relaxed on top of her left leg she slept peacefully with her back facing the pipes as the boy on the other hand was pleading for his uncle to get up. The girl kept listening to the boy to her right in hope of finally seeing him stop pleading for his uncle to get up. The girl already saw that the boy's uncle was dead and it struck a bit of sorrow into the girl as she saw the man already lying on the ground pronounced dead. With the addition of the boy pleading for his uncle to get up, all what the girl could do was let the boy hopefully see that his uncle is dead.

The girl overall from the boy had the strangest behavior by far as opposed to the energetic boy. This girl was weak against sunlight and she always seems to be tired during the day and is mostly awake during the night. She gives a very fleeting impression, almost as if she's about to disappear in any moment. To further add to her fleeting impression, she has an obedient personality and she rarely speaks that much as compared to the boy right next to her as she slept as if she was dead too.

It had only been an hour since the nosalises attacked and killed the boy's uncle before another sound of a terrestrial presence broke the eerie silence. But before the silence could be broken, the girl began to emit an energy hum that eventually grew a pair of black cat ears and a black tail before there were a pair of magical antennas that hovered offset the girl's head. But the boy was too loud to hear the hum as he pleaded to his uncle again "Come on, get up…we'll get eaten! Please…why are you sleeping? Let's go to mom…you told me you'd take me to my mom…you promised…"

The girl slowly opened her eyelids before she whispered an alert with a tinge of sleepiness within her "Someone's close."

"Hmm?" the boy asked in curiosity of what the girl told him before there was a set of ruffles from a dead nosalis to the right of the boy at another doorway. The boy looked to his right to see another young man peering from the doorway in hopes of getting the boy and also the girl's attention. The man was none other than Artyom; he had just fought his way through the Lurker-infested Hole Station as he made his way to the room where the boy and the girl was, who surprised Artyom from far beyond what he could imagine besides the Dark-ones.

"Go away! Leave us alone, mom told me not to talk to strangers!" the boy rebelled towards Artyom as the boy looked down back at his dead uncle while the girl still laid on the ground but with a slow crane of her neck as to get a view of what Artyom looked like. The girl gave Artyom the eyes of what you would see on a doll's head; innocent and sad, but mysterious at the same time.

Artyom couldn't help but look at the girl as he slowly walked into the room as the boy kept pleading for his uncle "Please, uncle…are you hurt? Say something!"

As Artyom came close to the boy's uncle's corpse and crouched as he kept a bit of eye contact with the girl, the boy finally came to realization about his uncle "He won't wake up…I think he's dead. He's dead, isn't he? How will I and her get home?"

The boy stood up at his full short height from his uncle's corpse and looked at Artyom with a half-sad and half-worried expression. As Artyom crouched to match the boy's height well enough, Artyom had a request from the boy "Will you take me and her? The girl needs some help getting to safety, she doesn't look good. But, I don't know you…but if I don't…I guess me and the girl will get eaten by the monsters."

The boy noticed the scoped VSK-94 on Artyom's back before he continued with his request "You have a gun?" Artyom nodded positively before the boy continued "Okay, maybe we'll come with you then. You can shoot the monsters, right?"

Artyom nodded positively again before the boy finished "Okay…my name is Sasha – you…well, can you shoot? I'll watch your back though!"

Artyom remained crouching as he let Sasha go behind Artyom and get onto his back before standing up and walking over to the girl and crouched down again to lift her up. Lifting her up in a bridal carry, the girl swung her right arm behind Artyom's neck and connecting her right hand with her left hand before Artyom struggled to lift both children up as he stood up.

Just before Artyom could groan with the strain on him from both children as Sasha feared about losing his uncle and telling the story of what happened "I hate to leave Uncle here. I was visiting Uncle along with the girl; he was taking me home when the monsters came. They jumped at him. He started shooting at them and I was worried if the girl didn't wake up to save herself, because she was asleep when a big nosalis bit him in the neck…but Uncle's very strong. He killed it with his knife before I think he died shortly after."

Artyom was walking slowly towards the other doorway on the other side of the room when Sasha gave him a useful tip that would prove useful "The rest of the monsters were strangely warded off by the girl somehow, and it seems strange that she had the power to ward off the monsters without putting an effort into it. So I think even if you have gun, you're not as strong as Uncle. But try not to worry firing back at the monsters, I'll have to help both of you or we'll all get eaten by the monsters."

Artyom's confidence went back up a little as he processed the information about the girl that he is carrying. The girl had a pair of black cat ears and a black tail along with a pair of transparent radar antennas that were floating on either side of her head. To Artyom; how could a little girl ward off the nosalises and the other metro monsters effortlessly like this? Artyom was not sure how the girl could do that, she was definitely not a Dark-one; Dark-ones can't shape-shift into different creatures, if they were able to do that, then they would have long killed the entire Metro populace.

But no matter how much he worried, Artyom pressed on into the doorway and turned to a one-way left and down the narrow hallway before turning another one-way left and then a right down another hallway. With Sasha and the girl's weight all combined together and straining on Artyom, Artyom was cumbered and hindered in his mobility as he walked slowly through the hallways and finally out into a small trackless metro tunnel filled with deep Lurker holes and tiny random wooden structures that laid in ruins from the previous nosalis attack.

As phenomenal as Artyom would view within the next moment, Sasha's cheerful gossip would pay off to Artyom relief as he saw a Lurker up ahead in the tunnel presumable eating a dead corpse. As Sasha sighted the Lurker "There!" the Lurker gave out a sort of brief spooked shriek before it ran off into the tunnel and going into a random Lurker hole. Artyom wasn't even hyped up to face the Lurker until it had ran away before Sasha could finish warning him. Artyom was baffled a bit about how the girl could easily spook the Lurker without even trying. He had heard from Bourbon that Lurkers don't attack people in groups, but Artyom wasn't in a group, he was carrying two children to safety and it put a lot of strain on him; especially with Sasha sitting on top of Artyom's shoulders.

Getting back to the present, Artyom continued ahead as he walked along the left narrow concrete pathway before Sasha gave Artyom another warning as Artyom went up an improvised incline made of piles of wood and small pieces of twisted steel "Hey, there's one crawling from the back…!"

Before Artyom could turn around, the two Lurkers that were about to charge at him all of a sudden stopped a couple feet in front of the incline and running off to a nearby hole that was only several meters to the left of the incline. Artyom backed himself up a little bit before side stepping to his left into a mineshaft-like tunnel up the incline. And again as expected as Artyom came across a narrow 'T' section up ahead in the tunnel, a Lurker bolted to the left as it shrieked a startled cry before disappearing down the left tunnel. Artyom was presumably undeterred as he turn to the left and saw that the tunnel had cut through a brick wall and into another dimly lit room.

He proceeded to continue when the girl in his arms whispered to Artyom in a tone as if she was not allowing him to do something "Don't." Artyom stopped steadily and unexpectedly at the right timing as Artyom and Sasha looked down at her before she looked down and got both Artyom and Sasha's attention to what she was looking at. As Artyom and Sasha looked down at the ground to where the girl was looking at, a thin mottled cable gleamed before Artyom's feet as the cable was connected to a pipe bomb rigged to go off once the cable was pulled a couple seconds later.

As there was a bit of silence amongst Artyom and Sasha, the girl whispered to the object that was directly before Artyom's feet. "A wire."

"How did you see that?" Artyom asked surprised from the girl's good eyesight before the girl looked up at Artyom and Sasha and replied. "Because I heard it twang as the monster went by." The girl then extended her left arm at the cable's tiny hook on the pipe bomb's pin and unhooked the hook from the cable after replying to Artyom.

After the girl unhooked the cable from the pipe bomb, the girl reconnected her left hand with her right hand before Artyom pressed on into the hole into the room and turning right and then left again into another room. The other room was a little bit weirder than the previous room; there was one end of the sandbags that had large spikes on them, the room was a little dimmer, and there was more junk that was sprawled out on the floor along with a tiny camp fire still burning that gave the room the dim lighting. Thankfully, within the room, there wasn't a Lurker hole or a Lurker in sight as Artyom entered the room and noticed a pair of lockers up ahead.

But then, before Artyom could ignore the lockers, Sasha gave Artyom a piece of advice "I'm not allowed to touch it – but there's ammo in that locker…"

"Which one?" Artyom asked as if he wasn't paying attention before the girl pointed with her left hand at the right locker which was closed (as the other locker was open with nothing in it).

"Yeah, that one." Sasha replied to Artyom along with the girl.

Artyom walked over to the right locker and before he thought about opening the lockers, Artyom looked down at the girl and asked her something as if she has a disability "Can you stand?"

The girl nodded sideways in a shy manner towards Artyom before he asked another question "Can you sit?"

This time, the girl nodded up and down barely, before Artyom walked to the right side of the locker and helped her down by lowering her legs onto the ground before she took her right arm from his shoulder and helped the rest of her way down and setting herself down on the ground as she waited for Artyom to take the ammo from the locker. And upon opening the locker and seeing the clips of ammunition, Sasha gave Artyom the reason how he knows that there was ammo in the locker "I know about the ammo lockers because my Dad was a scout. Look in the ones with the numbers on the front of them."

Artyom smiled casually to Sasha as he moved away from the locker after taking the small amount of ammo and helped lifted the girl again in his arms. Lifting her back up in a bridal carry again, the girl swung her right arm behind Artyom's neck and connecting her right hand with her left hand before Artyom stood up again and head towards the doorway that was to the girl's left when she was sitting down.

Going through a narrow incline into another tunnel up ahead, Sasha gave Artyom another piece of advice as Artyom turned right into another small metro tunnel "Oh, I have a gun, too! It's in a safe place, till I'm old enough to shoot. But either you or the girl can borrow it whenever you need it."

The metro tunnel was loosely similar as the previous metro tunnel that Artyom had been in moments earlier. There was more human corpse than the Lurkers holes up to the slight right turn of a tunnel up ahead in the metro tunnel. But all because of the girl being with Artyom and Sasha, the Lurkers were acting completely different as they normally would with a single human or a few people. The Lurkers that came into view up ahead in the tunnels were spooked as usual as Artyom pressed on ahead into the tunnels before coming along another doorway that only went to the right and to another doorway that went into another room. As Artyom went into the doorway and ignoring the white crooked sign 'граница станции', there was another Lurker in the dimly lit room picking on a human corpse near the cap fire that was almost directly in front of the doorway. But the Lurker was none of Artyom's problems as the Lurker ran off in horror and allowing Artyom to continue onward into the next doorway on the other side of the room.

The one-way right turn gave Artyom a surprise; the hallway was narrow like the previous hallways, but there were Lurker holes directly in the middle of the dim hallway! Artyom was almost about to run into a hole until Sasha warned Artyom of what was in front of him "Hey look out, there's a hole!"

The girl didn't flinch as Artyom made the last-second side movement to avoid the hole before preceding a gradual left turn through the hallway and walking over another hole without stopping. It there at the end of the hallway where things started to get a bit strange; the next room appeared to be an area of a small sewer area, with a tinge of greenish atmosphere from the lighting, and dirty concrete that had wooden junk as similar as from the first Lurker infested tunnel. But that didn't end there, Sasha gave Artyom a heads up of the room's current status "People should not throw grenades in here. Mom said the ceiling is weak and could come crashing down."

This hindered Artyom from using a grenade (or a pipe bomb) or any type of explosives to fight off any Lurkers. But why the hell did Artyom need to worry about using an explosive? If the girl he was carrying could ward off Lurkers, than he and Sasha were fine. As fine as Artyom and Sasha were with the girl, the room was small like every other room that he and the kids saw so far as they went around the wooden debris and brick supports and into an improvised dirt room that had another camp fire still lit along with two ways to go for Artyom. Artyom can either go left or right. The left went into a continuation of a poorly lit tunnel, while the right led slowly down into what looked like a narrow sewer passage.

Artyom decided to go right and into the sewer passage as much to the girl's hidden dislike. The greenish lighting returned again in the sewer passage as like in the sewer room that Artyom was in moments ago. The water was purely muggy and had a wretched stench to the color. The girl didn't bother to scrunch her nose as Artyom traversed through the water before stopping halfway through the passage and going to his left and back up a rather steep dirt incline into the left tunnel.

The left tunnel was as expected of Artyom; dark. The tunnel was in a rather shallow right bend as Artyom walked through the tunnel and towards the end of the tunnel that led him to be on top of the sewer passageway. There was a random body lying on the ground with its arms hanging down above the ceiling of the sewer passageway as Artyom jumped down into the water again.

"Are we really leaving the station? Cool! I've never been into the tunnels before. Mom says there's a scary place where kids go missing…" Sasha commented before Artyom crouched into a small tunnel and leaned a bit as to avoid Sasha from hitting the ceiling as he let Sasha continue "Mom says if the kids go too far into the tunnels, the mutants catch them and eat their brains, and then those kids become mutants and go chasing other kids. Is that true?"

This was also when the girl began to express her first sentence to Artyom "Maybe, but nobody will ever know who is mutant and whose not…it's just cruel how people can die so easily."

Artyom remained silent as he was approaching the exit of the tunnel while thinking about what the girl said. But before he could speak up in his own thoughts as he exited the tunnel, he found himself now free of a low ceiling having the risk of hitting Sasha in the head. He couldn't look up completely as he would knock Sasha off his shoulders if he did so. So he had to only listen to what Sasha had to say about what was above his head "Wow."

"What's that, up there? Wait, Uncle showed me a picture once…"

Artyom was careful enough to step up onto a sloped ramp of wooden planks without dropping the girl and Sasha as he went up. "The…s…sky! That's the sky, isn't it! It's like a painted ceiling! I'll be famous – I saw the sky!" Sasha cheered as Artyom went up higher and higher before stopping at times to jump shortly onto several steel beams before adventuring upwards without dropping Sasha or the girl in his hands.

But the height was making Sasha both a bit nervous and timid as he spoke up his hesitation with Artyom "Do you think we can climb all the way to sky?" Artyom didn't mean to purposely ignore Sasha as he went up another ramp and before going up a steel beam on the next right turn and up onto a concrete ledge that stretched halfway around along the wall. At this point, where Artyom got onto the concrete ledge, Sasha showed hesitation into the extreme heights for himself "Wait, I don't really want to go this high – please try not to drop us."

As weird as the height was getting extreme, the girl in Artyom's arms didn't mind the tall heights for some reason; she is treating this amount of height as if she was still on the ground or something. The girl wasn't even flinching or shake as Artyom carried her and Sasha around the concrete bend before hearing the yelling of Sasha's presumed mother "You bastards, let me go! My Sasha's out there! His uncle said he'd bring him back, but I should've have gone for him myself! Shashenka…what if they got him? Why didn't I keep him at home…?"

In the time that Sasha's mom was complaining about Sasha, Artyom had finished carrying both the girl and Sasha around the bend as he turned right and into a concrete tunnel. Up ahead in the tunnel, there was Sasha's confirmed mother breaking free from the guards before Sasha saw her down the tunnel from sitting up top from Artyom's shoulders.

"That's my Mom! Let's go, she is looking for me!" Sasha cried calmly to allow Artyom to crouch and let Sasha get onto the ground and make a dash to his mother. Unknown from Artyom's lack of concern, the girl in his hands had slowly lost her grip from wrapping her arms around Artyom's neck and her magical antennas along with her black tail and ears have already vanished before heading into the tunnel as she fell unknowingly and imperceptibly limp in Artyom's hands.

Back to Sasha for one last time, Sasha passed a ranger guard armed with an AK-74 guarding the tunnel before heading to his mother (who was standing in between two other guards). Watching Sasha for the possible last time, Artyom proceeded to the ranger guard who stood up and slung his AK before thanking Artyom "Thanks, man. Do you have any idea how much that boy means? His father is really important to all of us, and if his son died…that would have…"

Before the guard could continue, he quickly became alarmed as he noticed the girl in Artyom's hands "Uh oh, that girl in your hands doesn't seem well, is she okay?"

Artyom in a bit of surprise looked down at the girl in his hands and saw that her eyes were closed along with her head leaning to her left towards the ranger guard. Artyom looked up at the guard again and replied a bit unsteadily about the girl's conscious "I don't know, but I found her along with the boy. But I can't tell if she is unconscious or actually hurt, she may need some help, because she can't seem to walk without being carried."

The ranger guard in response said "Here, give her to me, the metro tunnel is up ahead and I'll take her there for medical attention immediately."

"Thank you sir, I'll be at the station momentarily." Artyom expressed as he passed the girl into the ranger's hands and before he turned to the other guards and ran down the tunnel to the metro tunnel up ahead.

Artyom let the guard head to the metro tunnel ahead as he walked over to Sasha and his mother. As he approached Sasha's mother and stopped, Sasha's mother could only thank so much for what Artyom did to protect Sasha and bring him back to his mother "Oh, god, poor Seryozha….thank you for saving my son…"

Sasha's mother then reached into her pocket and took out an AK magazine of military-grade cartridges before continuing "I can never repay you, but take these cartridges, at least it's something."

Artyom looked at the magazine in the woman's right hand for a moment before he made the most generous he could do; he shook his head lightly and said "No charge, but thank you."

Sasha's mother nodded and kept the clip in both in her hands as Artyom passed her kindly and proceeded to the metro tunnel.

-0-

**Moments Later…**

"Hmm…the Black Station is not far from here, but the tunnel goes the other way." the ranger guard said as Artyom further listened with worry.

With curiosity and a need for an alternative route to Black Station, he asked the ranger guard another question "If that's so, is there any other way to Black Station from here?"

"I apologize but I'm afraid not, you'll have to go to the surface. But be careful," the ranger guard replied as he gave Artyom a heads up of caution "new creatures have appeared there – Nazis. They've built an outpost in the destroyed building just outside."

But in case that was what Artyom had to further hear about the bad news, he was wrong as the ranger guard continued furthermore "That's not all though; outside at the square, there had been heavy snow reported in that area, which means it will be very tricky to find the underground crossing leading to Black Station. I can only give you the advice to hurry while there is no snowfall at this point, because it will be impossible to navigate and fight the creatures up there. But whenever you're ready, the boys will let you outside."

Artyom calmly replied to the ranger guard "Alright, thank you." before he walked slowly to his left and up the shallow incline as the ranger guard wished him luck "Good luck to you, ranger."

Artyom left an appreciated smile away from the eyesight of the ranger guard as he went up the incline and ignoring the freight cars holding random pieces of wood and steel pieces. He passed the freight cars before completing the shallow incline and coming across ammo merchants to his right. Ammunition and weapons wasn't so much of a big problem to Artyom; he has a scoped VSK-94 sniper rifle, a revolver w/ a silencer, a Duplet shotgun, and not least, the Tihar Pneumatic rifle w/ 2x scope lens. In addition, he didn't even have a problem with his equipment he had; he had 8 filters, a pristine med kit with 4 syringes left, and his battery life on his headlight still at a good 84%. Everything was set and ready, but the problem he faced was finding a way to navigate through the snow up on the surface and to Black Station before the next heavy snowfall hits.

The problem was further impeded by the correct timing. If he went now, he had the time to navigate through the snow and find Black Station, but if he went up to surface all so suddenly, he had to face the Nazi rangers up there immediately after he went outside. This was a serious issue because Artyom was exhausted after carrying Sasha and the girl to safety. If he slept for some time, he would be rehabilitated and be ready to go up to the surface, but he had to instantly take into fact about the Nazis and the time needed to find Black Station in the reported thick snow and ice. He would have to instantly face the Nazis upon leaving the safety of the tunnel, and he would be facing heavy snowfall, and not least; the flying beasts and watchman that are hunting throughout the area for prey. This was a hard decision for Artyom to make if he were to ever rendezvous with Ulman and continue his journey to Polis Station.

So in order for Artyom to think about it, he went over to the left side of the tracks and sat down near one of the small rectangular wooden crates to settle down. Upon sitting down, he flicked his left wrist up and checked his watch; it was 1:03pm. It seemed a bit too late to take a power nap at this time being, but he had to do whatever it took to get to Polis station. So, before he was going to take off, he brought his left arm down and he had to check his weapons.

First, he began with his revolver; by taking it out of its holster and then swinging its cylinder out to check for any fired rounds he could remember. He aimed the revolver upwards with his right hand and dumped the ammunition into his hands. To his luck, none of the pistol rounds were ever fired since he last reloaded before he ran into Sasha and the girl. With confidence, he loaded each bullet back into the chambers and closed the cylinder back into the frame before he holstered the revolver and went on to his VSK-94.

Now the VSK was a fine masterpiece of a weapon for rangers, but he had to make sure he had a full magazine. So by taking the sling off his shoulder, he swung the VSK onto his lap and moved the safety lever (also serving a dust cover) into the up position (safety), and he took the plastic 20 round magazine out of the VSK. By looking at the cartridges that were exposed on either side of the magazine, using his left index finger, he moved his finger down the cartridges and counted each and every single one of them before his finger touched the bottom and confirming that the magazine is fully loaded. It kind of felt a waste of time to take the magazine when he could've inspected the magazine while it was still in the rifle, but he had to take it out just in case he had to put any more cartridges to refill the magazine. Besides that, he put the magazine back into the VSK and slung the VSK back on his right shoulder before moving onto the Tihar pneumatic rifle.

The Tihar pneumatic rifle was an oddball sniper rifle; using air to fire 10mm BBs (Ball Bearings) at high speed down range. Like pre-war BB guns, it was somewhat silent besides the gassy 'putt' sound every time the rifle was discharged. But one of the most distinctive features about the Tihar is that unlike pre-war BB guns (besides the Tihar designed to fire BBs to kill), the Tihar has to be pumped with air every once in a bit after a couple magazines. This explains for the pumping handle at the front of the rifle and underneath the barrel, and for the air gauge behind and offset to the right of the rear sights. As one last characteristic of the Tihar, it was surprisingly light despite the air tanks specially built onto the rifle. But without any further ado, Artyom briefly looked at the air gauge and saw that the air tank was filled at a 59% capacity. So he stood the rifle up with the buttstock on the ground and he began pumping the Tihar with air gradually at a time. As a moment goes by, the Tihar was getting harder to pump as Artyom continued pumping air at 85%; close to putting too much air pressure in the air tanks and making the Tihar have a massive punch for a few shots. But carefully, he wasn't going to pump the Tihar completely at 100%, as the Tihar would be leaking air out of the rifle and it would give away Artyom's positions everywhere he went; like a red pre-war balloon tapped onto someone's back as they walk through the park (for example though).

Artyom slung the Tihar as he stopped pumping and checked the magazine to be fully loaded with 15 BBs. Just as he stood up, he was too busy to hear the light chattering to his right down the incline until he heard a female voice behind him as he made his way to the door leading out of the tunnel "Простите."

Artyom stopped just a meter away from the guards guarding the tunnel door and he turned around to face the voice behind him. When he turned around, he was quite evenly startled to see the same girl he was carrying just earlier approaching him and talking to him. However, the girl was dressed differently than when Artyom was carrying her before. The girl was wearing a white turtleneck along with a matching black double-breast overcoat that only went up to her lower waist. Her previous clothing was worn underneath the overcoat, as the flaps from her jacket and tie went to her knees. Like before, she was still wearing her ankle-high boots (more like shoes) and black tights. As to complete what she was wearing, the girl was holding a fur Ushanka in both her hands at stomach level along with a gas mask being held on the belt of her overcoat.

Her posture looked incredibly militarily as she stood in front of Artyom with a slight worried expression with the eyes of what you would find on a cat. Artyom was startled to see the girl standing up right and erect like never than before as if nothing happened. But before he could cause a bit of a scene just by looking at the girl with surprised eyes, he instantly asked polite "Да, что это?"

As Artyom asked, he kind of saw the girl relaxed a bit before she replied "I heard you might need some navigation to Black Station, mind if I come along sir?"

This was the biggest help he could ever get since he first met Bourbon. But a girl wanting to help him navigate through the snow and pass the Nazis? There was no way that Artyom could think a girl like her could help him through the snow; she's too young to get shot or tortured by the Nazis if she is ever to run into them up there. But, he needed the help now or never at this point. With first things first, he needed to ensure some terms with the girl before making the agreement.

However, Artyom began with the confirmation before he continued with the terms "I would gladly agree, but are you sure you want to do this?"

Surprisingly to Artyom, the girl nodded her head in verification to him before he asked the first question "You would need a weapon to protect yourself. Do you know how to handle a gun?"

The girl replied bravely "Of course sir, I'm primarily specialized in long-range support, basically a sniper class sir."

Artyom instantly had the idea of giving the girl the Tihar, since the Tihar had 2x zoomed scope lens that gave allowed for anyone to engage enemies from afar. This idea further gave Artyom to ask his second question "Can you be able to shoot with the Tihar?"

The girl had no idea what Artyom meant as she gave Artyom a confused face with one eyebrow slightly up and with one eyebrow still unmoved as she slightly turned her head to the right. Quickly, Artyom cleared things up by saying "In other words, do you know how to use an air rifle?"

The girl nodded with positivity somewhat "I know how to shoot, but reloading an air rifle seems a bit unfamiliar to me honestly."

"Well, you don't need to worry about that, I have an alternative rifle for you." Artyom answered with a solution by slinging the VSK-94 off his right shoulder and offering it to the girl "Take the VSK-94, it's quiet and reliable enough to kill a man both at close or long range, thanks to having the capability of being fully-automatic."

The girl without hesitation put the Ushanka on her head before she took the VSK-94 from Artyom. Grabbing the rifle's stock with her right hand and grabbing the small handguard with her left hand, she inspected the rifle slightly suspiciously as it felt like an oversized carbine in her hands. As she slung the rifle onto her right shoulder, Artyom asked unnoticeable timid "Are you going to be alright with that rifle? If so, here are some spare magazines."

The girl looked at Artyom and the spare magazines in his right hand before she replied "The rifle is alright." The moment she replied, she reached her left hand out to the pair of magazines in Artyom's right hand and tucked the magazines into her left overcoat's lower pocket before looking back up at Artyom.

Artyom cautiously repeated to the girl before concluding and heading to the door leading out to the surface "Are you sure you want to do this, young one?"

The girl responded unhesitant and with courage "I want to come with you, because without me, you'll never be able to find Black Station through the snow up there."

"Well," Artyom started to conclude "If you wish so. What do you say, let's go?"

The girl nodded again and convinced Artyom to finally conclude "Alright, let's go then."

With no hesitation left, Artyom turned around to the guarded tunnel door and approached the guards and instantly telling them to open the door. To the guards' surprise, one of the guards feared Artyom and the girl's bravery to go out there "You're crazy."

Artyom and the girl didn't say anything from the comment as one of the guards went over to the right side of the door and activated the power control to the door to open it. But as the guard activates the power to open the door, Artyom asks one last question to the girl before they move on "Oh and before I forget, what's your name young one?"

The girl looked up to her left up at Artyom and replied with a doll-like tone "My name is Sanya Litvyak; you can call be Sanya if you can't remember my last name. What's your name?"

Artyom shot back a reply in a gentle tone "My name is Artyom, there's not really a lot about me."

The girl, now named Sanya, giggled briefly at Artyom's name before the loud sound of the door's rollers were heard and with the door opening forward. The guard that activated the power source to the door backed up a bit while he was crouched with his AK ready to fire upon the Nazis if they plan on already storming into the metro station right when the door opens. Luckily, when the door opened, there wasn't a single Nazi directly outside waiting to ambush the guards.

With no worries of a Nazi firing platoon, Artyom and Sanya proceeded outside as they applied their gasmasks and went out to face the Nazis out on the outpost. Since Artyom gave Sanya his VSK-94 sniper rifle, he was walking right out the door with the Tihar rifle in his hands while Sanya had the VSK-94 in a low carrying position as she followed behind Artyom.

At this point, it was now the second time for Artyom to head up to the surface of post-apocalyptic Moscow with some help on his side.

-0-

**Author Notes: Thanks for reading, if you think I should add anything within this story; do feel free to give me ideas or opinions in the reviews. But until then, farewell. **


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